When I retired over three years ago, most of my friends congratulated me. They said they wished they had the audacity to do it. It is true, all it took was a bit of audacity and recklessness. Among the many reasons to call it a day at that point in time was my wish to spend more time with my children, not so much in an in-your-face kind of way, but as a presence in their lives. It is a bit hard to explain, but it was an attempt to validate my life, my existence. People do such validations in many different ways — making a lot of money is the most common way. Other techniques include creating an impact, through power, fame, 영성, career, 영광, innovation, 지식 등. 내 관점에서, all these validations are aimed at one thing — 뒤에 뭔가를 떠나, 기억하기. 난 내가 될 것이라고 보장함으로써 그것을 달성 할 수 있다고 생각 missed when I am gone, and the only way to do that is to be present when I am here.

If you ever tried to be present in a teenager&#8217;s life, you would know — it is a tricky proposition. Now that my kids are firmly in the teenage land, it is time to make myself less present. 게다가, the effects of my presence were not, I am told, uniformly positive. 예를 들면, my atheism may have contaminated their young minds. 참된, I was able to kindle some interest in 수학 및 물리학, but it came with lessons on rationality, 논리 등, and atheism wasn&#8217;t far behind. Certain qualities that I inculcated, knowingly or unknowingly, were double-edges swords — like a brutal honesty and a scrupulous and merciless avoidance of hypocrisy. So my presence in their lives made my children probably authentic, but arguably abrasive beings. You can now see what I meant by brutal honesty, can&#8217;t you? 어쨌든, the need for my presence has diminished considerably over the past year or so.

Another reason for “unretiring” is a miscalculation in how much money would be needed to retire safely. The amount I thought would be adequate turned out to be a bit too optimistic. 음, to be fair, I still think it is adequate, but only just. One probably wants a bit of wiggle room. 다시, a sunset career was indicated. Another strong indicator for it was the spousal disapproval of my indolence, which diluted my innate abilities, 분명히. My response to such criticisms is quite unlike a normal human being. The sunset career is not an attempt to dissolve the disapproval, rather a tool to demonstrate to myself that it wasn&#8217;t inevitable; that even now, there are choices. Life has always been a series of choices and remorses.

All throughout my adult life, 나는 하나가 티셔츠를 바꿀 것만큼 부담없이 직업을 선택하고 전환 한. 지금 다시 그것을보고, I am a bit surprised that I have had a modicum of success in all these careers. After getting trained as an engineer in one of the hardest universities to get into, I decided I liked physics better. I remember one of my fellow physicists at 코넬 asking me why I wanted to give up the money and comfort of an engineer&#8217;s career. 그것은 오랜 시간 전, when an engineer&#8217;s career was still something people looked up to. After about ten years in physics, which took me all the way to CERN, I switched to applied research on brain signals and such, and published a few well-respected papers.

사실, I did more than that. I put together all that I had learned and known till then in what I think of as my legacy – 언리얼 우주. Honestly, if anybody at all remembers me a hundred years from now, it will be because of what I wrote in that book, 및 published in a couple of journals during that phase in my life. All the other roles I played and continue to play – father, husband, friend, lover, 그의, brother etc. – were merely incidental sideshows. Although this confession probably diminishes my worth as a human being, I think I did a pretty decent job in most of those roles as well. In order to write the book, I had to play the role of a writer, which saw me develop a successful mini-career as a columnist and a commissioned author.

Having done that bit of work, (or having accomplished what I came down here to do, as I would put it in my delusions of grandeur), I decided to try quantitative finance, which prompted a trader friend to ask me later, “이유, you wanted money so badly?” I guess I did. May be I just wanted to know that I could, if I wanted to. The culmination of that career path was probably my second book.

With all that behind me now, I am looking forward to this brand new sunset career of mine. Let&#8217;s see how well I can do it. Let&#8217;s see if I can convince a few more young souls to miss me when I am gone. 게다가, isn&#8217;t kind of cool to have the Prof title tagged to your name?